An Analysis of Teletype Conversation

Twenty-one hearing-impaired teenagers with varied English language proficiency conversed with the experimenter using a teletype (TTY) system. A total of 175 samples were gathered and classified using a taxonomy of conversational features adapted from research on face-to-face interaction. Students with low English language proficiency were found to be more passive communicators in this setting. This group used less developed greeting sequences, seldom took a dominant role in the body of the conversation, asked few questions, and showed inadequate leave-taking.